Guest Column by Christopher Bedford ConservativeHQ.comFifty percent of Tea Partiers and conservative activists polled by Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com believe that former Sen. Rick Santorum's (R-PA) vote for the 2003 Medicare prescription drug plan hurts a run for the presidency. A further 17 percent remained undecided.
The poll comes on the heels of Santorum's regret for his vote on the bill, which he expressed on "Fox News Sunday."
"It was a 51-49 vote," Santorum said. "In retrospect, it should have been a 51-49 vote the other way."
An initiative of President George W. Bush, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and ModernizationAct was the largest overhaul in the 38-year old entitlement program's history.
While the Bush Administration hailed its passage as responsibly dealing with a problem the country was unwilling to tackle head-on, critics have called it an expansion of the welfare state and pointed out that it isn't paid for.
Since it was passed, at an estimated cost of $400 billion over ten years, the price tag has risen to $549.2 billion.
Thirty-three percent of those polled do not believe the 2003 vote will impact Santorum's possible presidential run.
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